Dr. Wendell Smith

Dr. Wendell Smith and his wife Gini are the Founding Pastors of The City Church in Seattle, Washington.  The Smiths pioneered the church in 1992 and were the Sr. Pastors for eighteen years.  Under their leadership, The City Church grew from a launch team of twenty-one people into a multi-ethnic church of thousands.  The City Church is known for its faith and its balanced, biblical teaching on prosperity.  It is active in giving to the poor and needy and in funding ministries throughout the world.  The church meets at multiple locations in the Seattle area, a strategy that has reproduced its effectiveness in reaching many communities throughout the area.  Weekend services are simulcast live to all locations and transmitted to tens of thousands of people via Internet and weekly television programs. 

 

Pastors Wendell and Gini have six grandchildren and two children, Judah and Wendy, who are both in full-time ministry.  Judah and his wife Chelsea have been the Lead Pastors at The City Church of Seattle since September, 2009.  Wendy and her husband Benny Perez are Lead Pastors of The Church at South Las Vegas, one of America's fastest-growing congregations, located in one of the nation’s most needy cities.  They also oversee an apostolic circle of churches. 

 

Wendell earned his Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Religion at Northwest Nazarene University in 1972, where he was also elected to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.  He received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree in 2007 from Northwest University, in Kirkland, Washington.

 

Pastor Wendell was co-chairman of Ministers Fellowship International with Dr. K.R. Dick Iverson of Portland, Oregon. He has also served for several years on the Board of Church Growth International, founded by Dr. David Yonggi Cho of Seoul, South Korea.  He was appointed a founding board member of the Global Pastor's Network by the late Dr. Bill Bright, and a Pastoral Skills Chair was established in his name in 2004. Other spiritual fathers in his life have included Dr. Kevin Conner of Melbourne, Australia, Dr. TL Osborne, Dr. George Evans, David Schoch, and Dr. Oral Roberts. 

 

Pastor Wendell has been instrumental in planting churches across the United States and around the world, including California, Washington state; and Washington, D.C.  He oversees an international network of related churches and is recognized as an apostle by many ministries.

 

Wendell Smith is a prolific author of church resources and passionate about equipping the Body of Christ.  His many books and ministry manuals include Great Faith, Prosperity with a Purpose, The Roots of Character, From Zero to Eternity, and a series of personalized Bible resources called Rhema® Cards. 

 

Pastor Wendell shares the vision the Lord gave Abraham: multitudes of people, as numberless as the stars of the heavens, coming from every nation into the Kingdom of God.  His prophetic vision has inspired pastors and churches towards an optimistic view of the end of the age, believing Jesus will have a glorious church that will be everything He commanded. 

  

Personal History

 

Pastor Wendell was born in 1950 in Tacoma, Washington.  He grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where his father was a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene.  He was converted at five years of age in the Kelso, Washington Church of the Nazarene.  In 1960, at age ten, he was baptized in water; and that same year was also called to the ministry at a Nazarene summer camp meeting.  He preached his first message in the spring of 1966 at his home church in Beaverton, Oregon. 

 

In 1972, he married Virginia Melton from Sacramento, California.  They were both baptized in the Holy Spirit that year. They moved to Portland, Oregon, to attend Bible Temple, a growing, vibrant church that played a key part in the Charismatic renewal and Jesus People era under the leadership of Pastor Dick Iverson.

 

Within a year, the Smiths were appointed Youth Pastors at Bible Temple.  They served as youth pastors and professors at Portland Bible College for twenty years, from 1973 to 1992.  Between 1987 and 1992, Wendell developed the Dragonslayer New Generation Seminar, a conference for young people, and hosted hundreds of youth conferences across America speaking to tens of thousands of young leaders, parents and believers. 

 

In 2004 Pastor Wendell was diagnosed with cancer.  His personal fight of faith has inspired others to position themselves for healing and to live a healthy, faith-filled life.  He has received revelation regarding healing and has developed materials and books on the subject that have brought hope and health to countless people. 

In 1992, Wendell and Gini moved to Seattle and launched The City Church.  They served there as Senior Pastors for eighteen years before being succeeded by their son and daughter-in-law, Judah and Chelsea Smith, in 2009. The Smiths now live in Kirkland, Washington, and continue to minister in The City Church and in other parts of the nation and the world.